The Mirrors reflection

Reflections of Darkness

Elowyn's sleep was restless. The weight of the evening, Felix's confession, the strange tension in the air, all churned inside her as she drifted into a fitful slumber. But tonight, her dreams were not the soft haze of confusion or fleeting images she'd become accustomed to. No, tonight, the darkness crept in like a suffocating fog, pressing down on her chest until she felt like she could barely breathe.

The air felt thick, heavier than it had ever been, the silence deafening. The canvases that usually cluttered her space were gone, replaced by shadows that seemed to stretch and twist unnaturally. Everything felt wrong, warped, as if the room had been tilted on its axis just slightly.

And then, she saw it-her mirror.

The large, ornate mirror above her desk was the only thing in the room that looked untouched, its surface gleaming with an eerie glow. Elowyn felt an overwhelming sense of dread wash over her, but she was drawn to it nonetheless. Her feet moved on their own, pulling her toward the glass like a puppet on strings.

Her reflection was there, staring back at her with hollow eyes. But it wasn't quite her. The reflection's face seemed distorted, its expression twisted with fear. The shadows behind it moved, swirling like smoke, thick and tangible. Elowyn's heart hammered in her chest, her breath coming in short gasps as she stepped closer to the mirror. She wanted to turn away, but something-something beyond her control-kept her rooted in place.

A flicker of movement in the corner of her eye. She blinked and saw something-someone-inside the mirror, moving just beyond the surface. A figure.

No. It couldn't be.

Her throat constricted as the figure stepped into view. Elowyn's pulse raced. It was her grandmother.

Her grandmother, pale and gaunt, wearing the same lavender dress she had been buried in. Her face was hollow, her eyes glassy and wide as they locked onto Elowyn's with a terrifying intensity. Her hands, thin and skeletal, reached forward, pressing against the other side of the glass, the skin stretched taut over her knuckles.

"Elowyn..." The voice that emerged was raspy and brittle, like old paper being torn. It was her grandmother's voice, but it was wrong-distorted, almost mocking. "Help me... I'm so cold."

Elowyn felt her legs buckle, but she couldn't move, couldn't speak. She stood frozen as her grandmother pressed harder against the mirror, her fingers scraping at the surface. Her once-kind face twisted into something grotesque, her lips pulling back into a sickening grin. "Don't leave me, Elowyn... Please... I can't... stay here... much longer..."

Suddenly, there was a loud crack. A spiderweb of fractures splintered across the mirror, emanating from where her grandmother's fingers had pressed. Elowyn stumbled back, her breath catching in her throat as the cracks grew, spreading like veins through the glass.

And then, with a sickening shatter, the mirror exploded outward, spraying shards of glass in all directions. Elowyn threw her arms up to shield herself, but when she looked back, her grandmother was no longer on the other side. She was crawling through the jagged hole, pulling herself from the mirror's depths with jerky, unnatural movements.

Her body twisted and contorted as she dragged herself into the room, her mouth hanging open in a silent scream, her eyes wide with something darker than death. A black, oily substance dripped from her hands and mouth, staining the floor beneath her.

Elowyn's chest tightened with terror as her grandmother's head jerked unnaturally toward her. "You let me die," she rasped, her voice warping, deepening into something monstrous. "You left me to suffer. Just like your father left you."